Jokul Frosti
by Sakura Taichou
Summary: It's been ages since he's felt that call but Jack doesn't forget, and he's always valued his friends no matter how long they've been away. He just wishes Thor would stop trying to leave him offerings by his staff when he thinks Jack's not looking.
1. The Past Reaches The Present

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers or Rise of the Guardians. Don't get my hopes up like that. :P

This is not really a chapter story but it's not really a one shot. I thought about the idea of it and when I started imagining complete scenes I wrote it down and thought I would share. It's a fun romp in a different fandom than I usually write in while I puzzle my way through Vala of Changing Light and a Supernatural crossover. Enjoy, I know I did. ^_^

Jokul Frosti

Chapter One

The Past Reaches The Present

It was funny; Jack was sitting in on a meeting with the other Guardians when the note arrived. Bunny and North were _again_ bickering about whose holiday was better while Tooth was sending out orders through her fairies and Sandy was drifting off a couple feet in the air, dangerously close to going out the window and Jack, Jack was resisting the urge to hop on top of his staff and start spinning to relieve the boredom. These meetings could drag and it sometimes almost made him wish he were out somewhere people couldn't see him because then at least he could do something interesting. Don't get him wrong, he was greatly fond of the Guardians. They were becoming his family and Sandy had always been his friend, from the moment they met when he was still new to being an immortal; but the Guardians were ages old and very stuck in their ways, North and Bunny would always argue the same points and Tooth would forever be flitting around like a whip crack attention in a hundred different directions at once. It left little room for Jack himself which he knew very well. It would take time for him to get his own niche and until then, he would be near tears with boredom while Easter and Christmas fought over bragging rights and he couldn't barely stand it.

The urge to play spinning top was winning when the Wind carried in something he hadn't felt in _centuries_, hitting him in the face and forcing him to his feet with a gasp, drawing the attention of the others. Ice surged in his veins and he nearly glowed with energy as his grip tightened on his staff, feet leaving the floor as he unconsciously hovered inches from the ground. A wild laugh escaped him as Tooth's voice registered.

"Jack! Jack what is it?" She flitted over to North and Bunny when the sense of cold around Jack expanded into a nimbus of frigid air, keeping all away from him. Sandy was halfway out the window when he came to at the sharp notes in Tooth's voice and he floated to her side, his face a mask of curiosity.

"What is happening?" North asked the Spirit of Winter, shivering a bit at the sub-zero temperature Jack was radiating. Jack looked at them with a startled kind of joy.

"They're back!" He crowed, eyes shooting to the open window. An inexplicable sense of dread welled in North's stomach at the sudden look of impatience that split Jacks face. The Guardian of Fun was leaving. For where, no one knew. "Christmas and Easter are equally important so North stop working Bunny up and Bunny take a chill pill okay meeting adjourned! Bye!" And out he went, taking the cold and Wind with him in so sudden a movement that it felt like someone had tried to suck the air out of the room.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" Bunny asked North, fur ruffling as he tried to work out the chill Jack's sudden burst of power had left him with. All four Guardians were concerned about their fifth who had just lit out without a reason. Tooth zipped to the window that had served as Jack's exit, looking around for Jack.

"He's gone! I can't see him anywhere!" She looked back at them, her jewel eyes glittering with worry. "What do we do?"

North looked out the window, hoping he could see the boy but could not, and hmm'd thoughtfully before shaking his head.

"Without clue to which direction he took we cannot hope to follow Jack. Only wait until he comes back to tell us what happened." He met Tooth's and Bunny's eyes and smiled. "No worries. Jack did not look scared. Happy if anything, so it could not be anything bad. Benefit of the doubt, no?" But inside, despite his words, North too was worried. He did not know anything that could affect another spirit so, let alone one he cared so much about.

Sandy watched the three of them fret over the abrupt departure of Jack Frost and made a token effort to attract their attention. It was ignored, as usual. He huffed but didn't feel put out, they got like that from time to time, he was well used to it. It wasn't like he had anything much to add anyway; long ago Sandy had seen Jack this way, this happy, once and only once, but he had never known the reason why.

Elsewhere...

Tony Stark was puttering around his tower (though he would deny he was 'puttering') and just about to head back to R&D to see what Bruce was up to when he spotted Thor out on the deck doing something he hadn't even begun to think the Asgardian would do.

He was dancing. And it was weird.

Sure though, the big guy was going for graceful and he almost managed it at points -when both feet were on the ground- but he was a **big** guy and his bulk did not help him at all. Tony snorted and let out a guffaw. He looked like a dancing bear on crack.

_Oh, I can't let this slide._ He thought to himself as he changed gears and headed for the deck.

"Hey Point Break," he called, interrupting 'Salutation to Stumbling Drunk', "what'cha doin'?"

Thor grinned but kept moving, looking for all the world like he was doing the cha-cha.

"Friend Tony! It is winter and the snow falls! I pay homage to Jokul Frosti for his blessed gift!"

Tony stared at the Norse God as he continued to jive, boots stomping patterns into the white on the ground. "You mean Jack Frost? How do you know Jack Frost? He's not even a well known myth!"

Thor looked offended and finally paused before he could break out in the Lindy.

"Blasphemy. Jokul Frosti is no _myth_. He is a god of ice and snow and the heart of winter season. Long have my people celebrated his reign over winter's domain with feasts and merry making. Now I have returned to Midgard and with the falling of snow I recognize his rule and celebrate it."

Tony could feel his jaw swinging in the breeze as Thor seemed to curse and mumble about starting all over again. The god of thunder had a god of his own? Where the hell did that come from?

There was a sudden burst of icy air, enough to make Tony shiver, and a sudden deluge of snow that seemed to whirl around the deck like a cyclone that Thor greeted with (what Tony felt was) unreasonable glee.

"All hail Jokul Frosti!"

"Dude, what the hell?!" Tony yelped. What craziness was this; he should have gone to R&D like he'd meant. Bruce would have been just as fun.

He heard a crackle like ice splintering followed by a laugh that reminded Tony of mirth and mischief with the slightest touch of deviance. He looked up as Thor did.

There, suspended in the wind, hair buffeted by his own power, hung who Tony could only accept was Jokul Frosti. Jack Frost.

Jack couldn't believe it. He stared down at the blond haired warrior he hadn't seen in a stone's age, looking just as he did all those centuries ago. Thor. Jack used to enjoy seeing Thor and his brother Loki when they used to come to this world to scare the 'savages' (as Hogun used to call them until Jack has filled his mouth with ice shaped down to his very incisors muting him until he learned his lesson. Uppity god, Jack would huff.) along with the Warriors Three. Sif was always trying to prove herself just as tough as the men and wasn't as much fun but Jack hoped she had lost some of that in the last few hundred years. Thor and Loki were his favorites though and he always tried to stop by wherever they were making a mess to cajole them into a game, something they had always been game for thankfully. He smiled widely at the man, dropping lower like he weighed the same as a snowflake which was nothing, drifting a bit before he made his feet hit the ground. His laugh, bubbling with joy, escaped him and he couldn't help it when he immediately left the ground again to zip to Thor's side.

"You don't call, you don't write? You should be ashamed of yourself!" He laughed, throwing his arms wide in the universal sign of 'hug me you ass!'

Thor look chagrined and bowed his head.

"Jokul Frosti, I offer my most sincere apologies. I have been remiss in paying you your rightful respect," Jack wouldn't have it. In a gesture as old as their friendship, he swung his staff forward and bopped Thor on the head. In the background Tony couldn't hold in his, 'ha!'

"Save it Thor. No hard feelings. Come greet me properly." He said with a gesture of his free hand.

Thor grinned and swept the boy up in a bone crushing hug, releasing a booming laugh. Jack returned it as best he could with his manliest effort before the two broke apart. He looked the Asgardian up and down.

"You look good man. The years have been kind to you."

"As they have to you Jokul Frosti. It is wonderful to see you again after so long." Jack agreed.

"Good to be seen." Jack responded, the way he had everytime he saw Thor.

Jack didn't know it but Thor kept to himself that Jack's return always dampened his mood no matter how bright the response was. Jack was a lonely god, he always had been, going about his duties and seeing to the world without fail even though none saw him or believed. Only Thor and his people saw him, something Jack strongly believed kept him going through decades where no one did. Someone had seen him before, someone would again.

Thor's hand brushed across the shoulders of Jack's hoodie and the large man's brow crinkled in confusion.

"Jokul Frosti, where is your mantle? This does not suit you." Once again, in the background, Tony made a noise that frankly agreed that someone Thor would worship should be better dressed.

Jack remembered what Thor was talking about in a flash of insight. The Asgardian's had gifted Jack with a beauty of a cloak shortly after they had met him the first time. It was a symbol of status and great respect for one they kept calling a winter god no matter what Jack said to the contrary, and he'd worn it for many years after they were gone until circumstances relieved him of it. He remembered it was dark like the night sky with a collar and hem covered in shimmering blue frost. They'd also replaced his clothing with something that matched but also respected his wishes to leave his feet bare. Blue top, black vest, grey leggings. They were ruined the same time his cloak was.

"The clothes you gave me were destroyed in a firestorm some hundred and fifty years ago. I had to make do." Jack shrugged, dismissing it as old news.

Thor did not agree.

"We must get you new garments. One who rules a domain as vast as winter's reach deserves more than these," he gave Jack's clothes a look bordering on snooty.

"If you say rags I'm going to hit you again." Jack promised.

"peasant's livery." Thor finished. Jack studied him with a sour look but eased off, figuring he could let that go.

"If you say so." Jack agreed, leaning on his staff. "But I'm not changing out of these until you've got something on hand that will actually fit me. No offense big guy but I would drown in anything that you wear."

"If you must," Thor sighed, bemoaning that Jokul Frosti would be stuck in those dregs for a bit longer. The suffering this god had to go through. "I will send word to Asgard. My friends will see to it that something befitting you will be made. Until then," now he looked behind him, "friend Tony! Jokul Frosti requires clothing immediately. Send for some to be brought to the tower!"

Jack looked beyond Thor to the human man in surprise. He was so busy with Thor that he hadn't paid any mind to the man, not realizing that he could see Jack. He looked the guy over and could see the spark of trouble that was just as much in himself as it was in this man. He grinned at him and waved. The man blinked a couple times while he waved back.

"All hail Jack Frost." the man blurted out, mimicking Thor's exultation. Jack burst out laughing.


	2. Every Little Parting

Standard Disclaimer: No own Rise of the Guardians or Avengers, just playing in their collective universes. :)

WOW you guys, I am blown away by the love this story is getting! More than two hundred favs, and followers, every time I check my email I see more favs/follows, it's amazing. Thank you so much, it makes me smile with every alert that goes up. Now on with the show!

Jokul Frosti

Chapter Two

Every Little Parting

"So-o," Tony drawled, glass of hooch twirling in his hands as he watched the white haired figure across from him fiddle with the sleeves of the pale blue pin strip dress shirt, one of many he'd had brought up, trying to unclasp the cuffs. Jack had closed them out of curiosity and was now ready to be shut of them. Next to him, the wooden staff that looked like a Shepard's crook stood eerily still as the boy used it to hold the shirts still on hangers they he had yet to try on. He had settled on pants pretty quick -a gray pair of loose canvas covered in large pockets that could lose the pieces that started at mid calf downward thanks to zippers- and was wearing a black tee featuring AC/DC under the dress shirts he was still going through. Thor had gone up to the roof to jump back to Asgard to let people know Jack had revealed himself once more and so he could get new clothing for the Guardian that 'befit him'. Jack had shouted after the god to not forget to include a hood in his order. "You control snow."

"Yeah," Jack drug out the word like Tony had his first, "you have a light box in your chest; aren't we just special sauce."

Tony grinned. Jack tossed the pale blue and grabbed navy, looking pleased with the color and put it on. Tony watched with interest as the shoulders and sleeves immediately frosted over in swirling white patterns. Jack stood, looking down with his arms out.

"This'll do. Thor's gonna disapprove but that will be remedied soon enough with whatever gift he's bringing back." He looked at Tony, a bashful smile that Tony knew Pepper would melt over and personally made him want to treat Jack like the kid he looked. "Thanks for this. It's been ages since I had something nice."

Tony raised his glass to the boy, saluting lazily.

"No problem. I have enough money I could use it to paper a ticker tape parade, some new threads for a friend of Thor's is no big deal." He took a drink, sighing at the bite, "So how come you couldn't just have your worshipers make something godly for you?"

Jack made a little hop that somehow transported him from the ground to the top of his staff where he _crouched_ in perfect balance on the balls of his feet. Some indefinable movement turned the perch so Jack could face Tony properly again and the gazillionaire marveled at the sheer grace of the boy. The boy who at the moment was looking a little edgy.

"I'm older than your country," Jack said dryly, "any 'worshipers' I might have had are long gone. Nope," he continued breezily, "Thor's having a ball, might as well let him get on with it."

"Uh huh." Tony wondered at that but Jack was moving, for the large windows. Tony watched with interest as the closer the boy got, the further frost spread across the glass. Which was a feat considering the panels were heated.

"Sir, the systems maintaining the median temperature of the windows is malfunctioning. Shall I run a maintenance scan?' JARVIS asked. Jack looked around in interest before curiously meeting Tony's eyes.

"You know what? Leave it. The system will reboot itself later."

"Very good sir." Then JARVIS surprised the winter entity when his attention turned to Jack. "Would Mr. Frosti like something to drink? I have a range of options for you to choose from."

Jack grinned like a loon.

"Actually, I could go for a smoothie. Do you have any of those?"

"Of course, do you have a preferred flavor?" JARVIS asked. Jack responded hopefully.

"Strawberry banana?"

"Very good Mr. Frosti."

"Ah," Jack called, one hand rising to stop someone on habit alone, "I stick to Jack Frost these days. Call me Jack."

"Of course Jack. I am JARVIS, please ask if you need anything."

"Sure." Jack affirmed to the air, eyes on Tony for an explanation. "Artificial intelligence?"

Tony could admit to being surprised that Jack knew what that was. Thor had trouble with a toaster, let alone something technological that could think for itself, and he was from a race that combined _magic_ and _technology_. Looks like that was strictly a Thor thing.

"Yup."

He got up and went over to the bar where a strawberry banana smoothie was sitting pretty on the counter and offered it to Jack. Again Jack did that little hop that seemed to launch him across distances like flight in a dream, eagerly snatching up the glass and practically mauling it.

"Ease up there Frosty, it's not going anywhere."

Jack wasn't at all embarrassed and he flitted up and out of reach with his treat, smirk firmly in place as he sucked at the straw. His hair ruffled in a buffet of wind that Tony could not feel, light reflecting like silver sparks in Jack's hair with every shift of wild spikes. The boy glowed with bliss when he took another mouthful of the icy treat. Jack grinned a second later.

"So Tony," he began cheerfully, "you fond of this carpet?"

"Come again?" _Paff!_

..o0O0o..

Pepper scribbled something on the documents she was holding as the door to the elevator opened to the penthouse. She smiled as she lifted her head to face her insufferable but essential boyfriend and get out of the elevator but the sight before her made her stop in her tracks, almost stumbling in her Manolos.

"Tony, what," she stuttered part of the question, staring at the ice coating every surface, snow drifts nearly burying the furniture, a snow man by the bar, and at the center of it all a giant looping ice slide that Tony Stark was currently racing down, giggling like a demented ten year old, and waving his arms over his head. She yelped when he took a loop de loop, barely keeping himself from flying off, and she started to make her way closer on tiny steps to avoid slipping.

"What is going on here? Tony! What did you do?"

The gazillionaire looked over and burst into an even wider grin.

"Pepper!" He expertly rolled out of the chute he'd been cruising, dropping to the snow covered carpet and crunched over. He threw his arms around her and swung her in the air making her shriek. She clung to him when he put her down, legs scrambling as her heels tried to find purchase on the slick floor. "God, this is so much fun. You've got to try it!"

"Tony!" She resisted when he tried to drag her over to the steps leading to the top of the structure, but not exactly doing a very good job of it when she had all the traction of a pair of ice skates in her heels; she ended up sliding along behind him, pulled along by one of his hands, "where did all of this come from?" She gave the carpeting a horrified look, moaning a low, "Noooo!"

"What? What?" he asked, searching the floor where her eyes were glued for whatever had upset her. His mood was eerily chipper even when trying to be helpful (which was wrong all in itself), "what do you see?"

Pepper gave him a disbelieving look before waving her hand at the white carpet. The fluffy material was either soggy or frozen, pieces breaking off whenever Tony trod across them in his sneakered feet and there looked to be a part where a piece had been cut out in the shape of a snowflake to Pepper's undying horror.

"Do you know how much this carpet costs?" She asked him rhetorically, voice flavored with discontent, "it's going to cost a fortune to replace it! How did this happen?"

"Oh yeah," Tony seemed to suddenly realize she was asking questions, "Thor's patron god Jack Frost came by when Point Break was getting jiggy with it on the deck," here he burst in to a hysterical '_heheehehehehehehehee' _that was somewhat frightening, "and Thor went to order him some clothes 'befitting one who rules a domain as vast as winter's reach' from his people, so we hung out. He had a smoothie and then he built me this awesome slide even though he shouldn't have been able to what with the heating system in the walls and floor but I guess he can do what he wants. Jack Frost, Jokul Frosti, high commander of all that is frigid and fun!" He bounced on the toes of his feet before rushing back to the slide. "He said he'd be right back!"

Pepper could only stand there and stare as her lover launched himself down the chute going 'wheee!', and asking JARVIS to make him a strawberry vodka smoothie. He pointed at her, "you're allergic! No kissing!" Her mind chugged along, sorting out the crazy that had spilled from Tony's mouth, hoping to make sense of the man's hyper good mood. As she sorted through the contents she decided there was only one thing she could really focus on to ask Tony about, unless he kept this up then she'd ask Thor whenever the Asgardian got back.

"Tony, Tony," she waved to get his attention when he slid past her. He looked over and for a wild moment she thought he had forgotten she was there, "you said Jack Frost was here? Where did he go?"

"He's combating global warming!" He crowed, breaking into more tittering, "no, no, just kidding. He said the Wind brought warning of an avalanche so he had to go and take care of it. He promised to make me an ice Iron Man to go with my snowman when he got back."

"That's..nice."

"Sir, your smoothie is ready."

"Yay!" Pause. Epiphany. "No kissing! Boo!"

..o0O0o..

Jack grinned, pinwheeling from the Wind's playful tossing. His laughter followed behind him along with a fine dust that sparkled briefly in the light. Wherever the dust landed he knew it would carry joy. Around him snow fell soft and thick over the Rocky Mountains in an early cold snap that would provide a series of snow days across three states, which he took some pride in, and sent not a fair few bears and other wildlife into hibernation.

"Where is it?" He asked his oldest friend, searching the ground with his eyes while Wind carried him high above. He listened to her relay to him coordinates in the soft and biting language of the air over hills and valleys and the wild woods, her accent lacking the taste of ocean this far inland. "Oklahoma, really? Haven't had one that far south in decades." The dark blue button up shirt spread out to make it look like he had wings. Laughing he sped up, "right, right. Let's go."

He raced across the landscape, soaring high over trees as he passed over Missouri, avoiding the air space over runways. Wind spun him around the pond of a farm where the water iced over before he could do more than skim across it. Tapping it in passing with his staff he released a burst of frost in the shapes of roses before he was gone for the farmer to puzzle over later.

Drawing upon the trailing ends of the Rocky Mountains, he rode in Wind's embrace to a peak where trees had been cut down and the land destroyed and cleared away. He frowned at the wall of snow that had built up far too quickly, and high, to stay where it was. Beneath it he could see a small town that was oblivious to the danger it was in. He dropped in the valley humans had carved out of the mountain side looking up at the drop the snow would have to come down from and wondered over the best way to handle this.

"This can't be right." He muttered to himself. "This is way too much snow for this area. This is months of snow fall in two weeks."

He lifted his staff, sweeping it left to right decisively, and a series of zigzagging walls made of ice grew across the valley wide enough apart to allow for snow to fall in easily. The further away the walls moved from the drop off the higher they rose and Jack started feeling better about the town's chances.

"Fool!" A rough voice shouted at him and something hard slammed into his back, "creature! Betrayer!"

"Hey!" Jack staggered forward before launching himself into the air, turning to look for whatever had jumped him. There on the ground was a very angry nature spirit trembling with rage. There was fury in his brown eyes, hard as stone, set in a brown face with high cheek bones and long dark hair falling wildly down past trembling shoulders, and all of it directed at Jack. "What is your problem?"

"You're trying to save those murderers!" The nature spirit ranted, "monsters! Killers! They desecrate the land and wound the mother earth and you would defend them!" An angry cutting motion with his hand shattered one of the ice walls Jack made and sent the shards rocketing toward the hovering boy.

Jack darted between projectiles, knocking some away and scowling. He mimicked the spirit's sharp hand gesture and sent the projectiles spinning around to fly back at their caster. Now it was the spirit's turn to duck which Jack capitalized on, diving with his free hand forward. Power crackled along his fingers and created a glowing ball of blue and white power against his palm that he pushed into the spirit with a roar. Ice exploded outward. The spirit yelled in pain struggling in vain to free himself from the shell he had been encased in, pressing in against him with all the chill of the arctic. The spirit cracked his eyes open to glare at Jack like he was the scourge of the earth.

"You betray your own to help them! They abandoned their beliefs, they abandoned us, and now they destroy our anchors and homes!"

"Dude, relax," Jack responded, resting his now harmless hand against the shell over the figures heart, "take a deep breath and calm down."

"I will not calm down!" the male struggled against his prison, "I will bring destruction down on their pitiful village and exact my revenge!"

"Anger issues man," Jack sighed, ruffling his hair with a hand, "they'll give you a heart attack." He frowned when the spirit started ranted in an old language, native to the land but known only to very few and popped him over the head like he would Thor to get his attention, "hey, chill out! And fork over your name, this is getting tedious."

"Nvyu Atalvyi"

"Rock Mountain," Jack had a flash of insight, "you are the Rocky Mountains." He sighed, "the mortals are cutting into you."

"Yes" Nvyu Atalvyi moaned, ceasing his struggles though he was still upset, "they are taking me apart in the name of progress and they don't care!"

"Peace, Nvyu" Jack soothed, carefully pulling the ice back to free the mountain spirit. He helped steady the man with a hand before continuing, "are you truly tied to this mountain range? It has nothing to do with belief?"

Pain flickered through those earth brown eyes.

"I feel it like skin being rubbed raw, layers coming off in pieces by the little lives I once guarded and sheltered with my trees and caves. They come with axes, and machines that dig up the ground, leveling land that formed the way it was intended, and for what? Strip malls and housing developments."

Jack watched the play of emotions on Nvyu's face before sighing. He looked across the artificial clearing.

"It's a bad job I'll give you that." He pat the spirit on the shoulder, leading him away from the view of the unwitting town below. "The world has moved on past knowledge of you but you can't move on yourself, being the mountain range." An inquisitive look, "how far from the the very edges of the Rocky's can you go? Have you tried to leave? Tried to distance yourself, y'know, for a little while?"

Nvyu looked outraged.

"Outrageous!" he nearly shouted, "that would be dereliction of sacred trust!"

"And you were ready to end lives instead of preserve them." He reminded Nvyu gently, words full of truth. Nvyu seemed to deflate at the reminder of his murderous intent. Jack sat him down on a bench made of ice, leaning forward to set his elbows on his thighs with hands dangling between his legs, "As an Immortal you stand as both home and hearth to mortals, large and small, yet you are under a tremendous amount of stress, and _pain_; distancing yourself now for a short time can dull the connection until the sensation becomes a small hurt."

"If they would stop,"

"They won't." Jack cut him off, "and you know it. Time marches on and the world turns, forever shifting. You need to take a breather." Here Jack grasped Nvyu's wrist in comfort. "All will not be suffering Nvyu. Life is joy, find some for yourself while this plays out."

The mountain range held his ice blue gaze for long moments. He thought about what Jack said.

"It hurts."

"As all change does." Jack agreed. He stood with a flourish of his staff. "Every time we say goodbye, and our kind say it more than most. But we would not still be here if we could not somehow endure." His pale face suddenly brightened with a sly humor. "Have you ever been to the movies Nvyu? I think you would like them."

..o0O0o..

As it turned out, Nvyu hadn't so Jack convinced the mountain range to pay a visit to the Appalachia who Jack knew liked cartoons for a movie night. Nvyu hadn't been too sure about it but Appalachia ("Call me Lachi") had been very patient when Jack had explained why he had brought Nvyu to her and gave Jack her thanks for helping her brother before the winter spirit flew back to the area Nvyu had been so upset over. Nvyu would be well looked after while Jack took care of something that worried him, and hadn't noticed before speaking with Nvyu.

He looked up at the steep wall of earth and the bare ground that used to house thick forests of pine and ash. He thought of the town directly below and frowned.

This was a bad decision on the contractor's behalf. Poor timing too, on the business' end. As far south as they were, heavy rain was still a distinct probability. In fact, he could taste it on the air; a warm front was moving in that would turn all of this snow to water, followed swiftly by the rain he worried about. The valley the town sat in was a flood point, which was bad all on its own, but even more than that..

On a mountain side, trees did more than simply provide cover for animals and create oxygen. Their roots went deep into the earth, providing stability and holding the soil in place, preventing it from shifting about like sand in a riverbed. With the trees gone, roots and all, the melting snow and rainfall would soak into the ground and turn it all into mud until so much built up that the weight of it would go with gravity's call down, down, down. Right for the little town Nvyu had been aiming for, without Nvyu having had to have done anything. _Too clouded by pain to see what would happen,_ Jack thought sadly.

Mudslide.

Jack knew there weren't any real foolproof ways of preventing a mudslide, could really only get out of the way and wait for it to be over. But he didn't have that option, couldn't in good conscience leave the humans to panic and scramble in a wave of crushing earth; he had to try to prevent such a fate from happening.

He gripped his staff tight, blue eyes hardening to icy disks. The nimbus of cold that had formed around him when he'd felt the Asgardian's call bubbled back into existence and he felt his feet let go of the ground. He would have to funnel the mud into a controlled slide; slow it down, spread it out, avoid as much damage as possible.

"Wind!" The air curled around him, conveying her attention in the scents of pine and evergreen, "Old friend, I need your help." He turned to face the town, turning her attention as well, "drive them inside and keep them there. If they're in cars, fine, I can work with that; but make sure the streets are empty!"

The Wind tossed him once in understanding, then made for the town to carry out the Winter Spirit's wishes, always ready to help her dearest friend. He smiled briefly at her before the uptilt of his lips dropped away, ready to work.

..o0O0o..

"Friend Tony!" Came the call from the doorway, just before Thor slipped and fell in the ice that still clung stubbornly to existence, yelping as he made contact, "FortheloveoftheAllFather!"

Tony let out a cackle as he zipped by. Pepper had already left, beating a hasty retreat. Thor watched the brunette hang a right in the ice chute that sent him skidding across the frozen flooring, coming to a stop a few feet away from the Asgardian. Thor sat up, took in what he was seeing, and grinned.

"Jokul Frosti has not changed" he said, "I am glad he still carries joy in her heart. Too long has it been since he and my people spoken."

"Been a while since you've seen each other then?" Tony asked while scooting closer. Thor nodded his blond head.

"Several centuries" Thor said thoughtfully, "I believe it was the...twelfth century? Eleventh? Heimdall would know for certain."

"Damn" Tony whistled, "you suck."

"What?" The demigod asked, surprised.

"'You don't call, you don't write', for almost a thousand years?" Tony raised both eyebrows, "You drop out of sight for a few days? Fine, no big deal. A few months? If you live in another city, totally forgivable, you can even go a good decade and still be a good friend. But a near millennium? That's gonna take more than an 'I'm sorry' and a one man dancing bear."

Thor's shoulders visibly slumped as Tony's reasoning got through to him and he felt every blithe statement like an accusation. Though the All Father had told his people to cease interacting with Midgard, perhaps they should have told Jokul Frosti it was alright to call on Heimdall from time to time; Odin had never rescinded his welcome of the winter deity.

"Indeed." The demigod stared at the ice that refused to melt, feeling strongly that he would be spending a great deal of his time making this up to the winter god. Gladly. He knew full well what Jokul Frosti's life had been like before he met the Asgardians, and while the reminder only made the guilt worse, it served to reinforce his determination well. "First I will make sure he receives suitable regalia, then I will work sincerely to make up for failing him so."

"Excellent!" Tony enthused, another smoothie in hand though Thor did not see when it arrived, "Want to help me build another snowman? Jack's trip is taking longer than I thought it would and two snowmen would better flank the Ice Iron Man Jack promised me!"


End file.
